International Tourism Management students of Cologne Business School honour best exhibitors at ITB Berlin 2018

03/11/2018

The Cologne Business School awarded the Best Exhibitor Award (BEA) in cooperation with the consulting company COMPASS for the 18th time at this year’s ITB Berlin. The winners received the coveted BEA during a festive award show at the Palais am Funkturm in Berlin.

During the days for trade visitors of the world’s leading tourism fair from March 7th-11th, more than 30 International Tourism Management students of Cologne Business School (CBS) evaluated the nearly 2,000 booths. They rated the exhibitors in eleven categories such as booth design, authenticity, sustainability and service. To provide a maximum of transparency, the top fifteen of each category were closely examined by another team of students in a second round of evaluation. In order to organize the BEA, the CBS team under the responsibility of Dr. Wee from CBS and Martina Leicher, managing director of COMPASS consultancy, worked closely with Messe Berlin.

The awards were handed over to the winners during a big award show on March 11th at the Palais im Funkturm, to which the top ten of each category were invited. Besides the winners in the regular categories, for example India (category Asia), Costa Rica (category America) and Poland (category Europe), additionally the overall winner by points was awarded the BEA in the category Best of Best. Bavaria has impressed the students a lot and received the prize in this special category.

At the beginning of the award show, David Ruetz, Head of ITB, welcomed the more than 700 guests and looked back at the past months of preparing the BEA: „Cologne Business School has awarded the Best Exhibitor Award for many years now – today, in fact, for the 18th time. The winners‘ excitement about the trophies always makes the award ceremony very special for us. A lot of effort, planning and passion were put into the project and it definitely pays off. Today’s award show is one of the big highlights at the ITB for us. We are very happy about this special ending of the fair.“

During the following award ceremony, the guests were presented with numerous impressions from the various cultural regions and exhibitors: Dance groups, variety artists and other showacts contributed to a splendid evening and showed how much effort they put in their presentations. Costa Rica amazed with vibrant vibes, India presented vivid marionettes and Bavaria presented a typical dance called Schuhplattler.

After the official part of the Best Exhibitor Award, the guests celebrated their success with refreshing drinks and snacks.